conscientious objection

Conscientious objection

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  There are always supporters and opponents of a country fighting a war. Over 2500 conscientious objectors lost their civil rights in New Zealand for refusing to serve in the First World War.

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• Page 2 – Military Service Act

  The Military Service Act 1916 allowed limited exemption from service. Men who were exempted had to be prepared to provide alternative non-combatant service in New Zealand or

• Page 3 – Socialist objection

  Many socialist and labour leaders criticised the First World War as an imperialist war and strongly opposed conscription. New Zealand workers, they argued, had no quarrel with

• Page 4 – Pacifist objection

  Pacifists and Christian socialists opposed the war on moral or religious grounds.

• Page 5 – Māori objection

  Māori served in the First World War in the Native Contingent. At home, there was some strong Māori opposition to conscription.

First World War - overview

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  Archduke Franz Ferdinand, heir to the throne of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, and his wife Sophie were assassinated in the Bosnian city of Sarajevo. This was a key event in sparking the Great War of 1914–18.

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• Page 6 - The war at homeNew Zealand played a small but useful part in the British Empire's war effort, and its essential war aim was achieved with the defeat of Germany and its allies in late 1918. New

Māori and the First World War

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  Māori reactions to serving in the First World War largely reflected iwi experiences of British actions in the 19th century.

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• Page 3 - Resistance to conscriptionIn his recruitment waiata, 'Te ope tuatahi', Ngata made it clear that the replacement recruits that he and his colleagues had raised all came from the East Coast tribes of Mahaki,